The sport of windsurfing has grown rapidly. In the United States in the mid-1960's, there appeared two published accounts of "sail boards" carrying hand held sails. The first account was by a Pennsylvania inventor named S. Newman Darby, and the other by a southern Californian, Jim Drake, describing efforts by himself and others, such as Hoyle Schweitzer who has become the manufacturer of sail boards known as the "Windsurfer". Darby published information on his design in Popular Science in August of 1965. Out of this first clumsy design improvements and developments by Drake and Schweitzer resulted in a patentable product. In 1969 the Rand Corporation of Santa Monica, Calif. published an article by James R. Drake on "Windsurfing--A New Concept in Sailing". It described a simple system of a sail board with a long slim haul and tailfin, a daggerboard, and an unsupported, universally hinged sail with wishbone booms. There were no mechanical devices, no pulleys or levers to come between the operator and the elements. There were no shrouds to support the rig, and no rudder to steer with. The skipper supports the sail by holding the boom and steers by utilizing the universal joint to vary the position of the sail. A fully articulated universal located on the foot of the mast permits the mast to be tilted fore and aft by the skipper which in turn causes the board to swing port starboard according to the wind conditions. However, the skipper must retain a grasp on the boom to control the mast. He has to position his hands and the weight of his body so as to maintain a balance on the sailboard in respect to the prevailing wind. This can be an exhausting experience and extremely fatiguing in respect to the constant grasp on the boom.
A harness was developed by the Charchulla brothers of Germany and gradually gained acceptance between 1975 and 1979.
The harness couples the weight of the skipper to the boom through a sheet. A padded sling is worn as a vest by the skipper. A hook attached to the center of the sheet engages the sling. The end of the sheet is attached to the boom. However, the standard arrangement of tying the sheet to the boom does not permit an easy adjustment to accommodate for changes in balance to accommodate the varying wind conditions one experiences in maneuvering the sailboard. The inventor has developed a novel system which permits simple and rapid adjustments of the sheet while under sail. It must be recalled that the universal articulation of the mast does not permit free use of one's hands in making adjustments. The described system permits simple and fast adjustments so that the skipper does not lose control of his tack.